Part of the spiritual beauty in
Simchat Torah, Rejoicing in the Torah, is rejoicing in the
individual who perfectly personified the Torah. By Torah, I mean
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy rather than
the traditions of men added to them in writings like Talmud.
Messiah/Christ has been the perfectly Torah compliant and
obedient person. In His ethical and moral perfection and being
without any sin, He is our example of the second Adam.
Messiah/Christ perfectly obeyed each of the commandments
(mitsvoh) of the 613 given to learn, study, and obey in his
earthly life. Commandments (mitsvoh), Covenants, and Mishnahs
(good works) are perfectly lived in Him. Rejoicing in the Torah
is Rejoicing in Him!
During the 70th Week of Daniel
ahead, the Age of Grace will be over and an Age of Law resumed
for The House of Israel with sanctuary and animal sacrifices.
The Nations (the pagans, the Gentiles) will be assessed
and judged personally by Messiah/Christ, The Judge, after His
Second Coming. How will the Nations be treating the Eternal
Covenant made with Avram (Abraham) in this 7 year period? The
variables, the components for judgment about status at the
beginning of the 1000 Year Reign, shall be the treatment of the
Covenant People, the Covenant Land, and Jerusalem. The Eternal
Covenant will be vitally important in the next 7 years and
beyond.
Simchat Torah, Tishri 23, will be
10-20 to 21. It concludes for Israel as 10-21 goes to 22, the
weekly Sabbath. Simchat Torah will be 2529-30 days from the
beginning of Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles) in 2018. It will
be 2520 days from 10-26-2011 until Yom Kippur in 2018. This
would be a curious book ending of the conclusion of the Feasts
of the Lord for 2011, the concluding of the final 7 of the 7,
with the richly symbolic day of Simchat Torah thus
beginning the final 7 years until Tishri 10, Yom Kippur in
2018, at day 2524-5. It would be a Tabernacles ending leading to
a Yom Kippur or Tabernacles beginning in 2018. Simchat Torah is
the day of the year when the annual Torah reading cycle begins
anew at Genesis 1:1. Israel goes into the Torah again for
another year on this date! It places itself and The House of
Israel under the authority of the Torah!
Simchat Torah night was the night
of the year, when the Temples were at Jerusalem, for the
disposal ceremony of the discarded of the priestly garments.
These were burned rather than thrown away. How? They were each
tightly would and then used as giant wicks in large bowls of
frehly harvested and pressed olive oil. Much of that night the
skies above the Temple Mount were brightly lit. One year on
Shemini Atzeret, Messiah/Christ made reference to the special
and visually impressive ceremony. Remember, the pilgrims would
still be there to see it. They dismantled the sukkahs and left
for home during the day portion of Simchat Torah. You get a
sense of the visual drama of it in a scene from the movie "The
Greatest Story Ever Told" directed by George Stevens. Our
Redeemer said it well. "I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me, will never walk in darkness, but have the light of
life."
Simchat Torah was not commanded
in the Torah. What were commanded were days 1-7, and the Yom Tov
(like a weekly Sabbath) and concluding sacred convocation on day
8 of Shemini Atzeret, the Last Great Day. But it was only on
Simchat Torah (an Isru Chag) meaning "binding of the festival"
when the Temples were at Jerusalem, that the pilgrims were
released and began to leave Jerusalem to go home. Shemini
Atzeret was like a Sabbath, a no work day, and a no travel day.
Travel would have been considered work and had strict
limitations in interpretation. Significantly, Simchat Torah was
the day when the sukkahs were dismantled, as well. They
could not do this on days 1-7 since they were to live in them.
Day 8, Shemini Atzeret was a no work day and the final day of
sacred convocation for The Spiritual Year. The last days of
Sukkot were especially appreciated since it would be a long wait
of 6-7 months until First Passover/Unleavened Bread, the
first of the 3 Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, then Shavuot
(Pentecost), then Sukkot. Hanukkah was not a Pilgrimage Festival
or a Feast of the Lord.
If we remain here a few more
days, the dismantling of the sukkahs in Israel on 10-21 may have
tremendous symbolic spiritual importance. Might it be the Season
and The Day when the sukkah life is concluded and dismantled,
The Age of Grace is complete, Israel enters Sabbath Rest, The
House of Israel in recommitted to the authority of the Torah, We
enter fully into His Rest, and the earthly pilgrims of
Messiah/Christ are Released to Go HOME and begin to LEAVE to go
to The Far Country of Heaven? Will Simchat Torah as it begins or
ends for Israel be THE DAY TO GO HOME? Might The Day of The
Blessed Hope be so soon? We shall see. "What I say to you I say
to all. Watch." Come quickly, Lord...